Adani Group to redevelop Dharavi slums
   Date :21-Dec-2024

Adani Group 
 
Mumbai
 
The Bombay High Court on Friday cleared the decks for redevelopment of Dharavi slums as it upheld the tender awarded to the Adani Group for the project by the Maharashtra Government, ruling there was no ‘arbitrariness, unreasonableness or perversity’ in the decision. A division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar dismissed a petition filed by UAE-based Seclink Technologies Corp challenging the State Government’s decision to award the mega redevelopment project in Mumbai to Adani Properties Pvt Ltd, which had made a Rs 5,069-crore offer.
 
The bench rejected the contention made by the petitioner that the tender was ‘tailor made’ to suit a particular firm of the private conglomerate, noting three bidders had participated in the process. Seclink Technologies had emerged as the highest bidder for the project in 2018, but the tender issued in that year was later scrapped by the Government. The bench noted Seclink Technologies’ petition lacks force and hence stands dismissed. “The grounds urged in support of the petition lack force and accordingly, the challenge to the impugned action on the part of the authorities, whereby the earlier tender process was cancelled and fresh tender process has been resorted to, fails,” the HC observed. The Adani Group had emerged as the highest bidder for the 259-hectare Dharavi Redevelopment Project in the heart of Mumbai and bagged it with its Rs 5,069-crore offer in the 2022 tender process. In the first tender issued in 2018, the petitioner company had emerged as the highest bidder with its Rs 7,200-crore offer. The Government had, however, cancelled the 2018 tender and issued a fresh one in 2022.